1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus to form an image, such as a printer, and more particularly, to a method and an apparatus to discriminate the class of a medium to form an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, image forming apparatuses discriminate the classes (types) of media to uniformly form an image on the media regardless of the classes.
A conventional image forming apparatus (not shown) includes a light emitting part which emits a light beam to a medium and a plurality of light receiving parts which sense the light beam reflected from the medium. In other words, the light emitting part emits a light beam to a point of the medium, and the light receiving part senses the light beams reflected or diverged from the medium at various angles. Intensities of the light beams sensed at various angles are used to discriminate (determine) the classes of the media.
If the number of light receiving parts increases, the volume and production cost of the conventional image forming apparatus may increase. Thus, the conventional image forming apparatus includes a finite number of light receiving parts. Since the media discrimination method performed by the conventional image forming apparatus cannot sense the intensity of light at various angles, it cannot definitely discriminate the classes of the media with certainty. In addition, the structure of the conventional image forming apparatus is complicated and production costs thereof increase due to the emission of light to the point of the medium and the sensing of the light reflected from the point.